Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Justin Blackmon (14) holds up his arms as middle linebacker Paul Posluszny runs an interception back 51 yards for a touchdown against the Denver Broncos in the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in Denver.

Jaguars #14, Justin Blackmon and #89, Marcedes Lewis on the bench as the game comes to a close against the Houston Texans Sunday. The Jacksonville Jaguars took on the Houston Texans at EverBank Field in Jacksonville Sunday, September 16, 2012. The Jaguars trailed at the half 17 to 0 and lost with a final score of 27 to 7.

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During his suspension-filled time with the Jaguars, one thing Justin Blackmon made clear from the moment he came into the NFL was that he was the anti-diva. The 2012 first-round draft pick never cared for the spotlight, though a few of his breathtaking performances as a receiver put him there.

Even when Blackmon played well, he loathed media attention and talking about himself. Now that he’s been in NFL exile for eight months — serving a second suspension and still under an indefinite ban for violating the league policy on substance abuse — the guarded Blackmon has kept himself as insulated as possible.

Many of his coaches at Plainview High in Oklahoma, who once felt a tight bond with him, have lost contact. Except for an occasional text message, Blackmon keeps a safe distance from Jaguars’ teammates that he was close with and shares no personal information.

“Every now and again, he will respond to my text,” said Jaguars receiver Mike Brown. “We came into the NFL together and we’re halfway close. But I don’t get into his personal business. Whatever he has going on, I respect his space.

“I just want him to get better. Whatever the problem is, get it addressed. I’m more concerned about him as a person.”

The Times-Union talked to several people in Blackmon’s inner circle, including an extended conversation with his mother, Donna Blackmon, and learned that those who care for him the most prefer to keep a tight lid on his whereabouts and recovery process.

“That’s my son. I’m mom and try not to be the person that’s sharing [information about him],” Donna Blackmon said, explaining why she preferred not to disclose any details about Justin’s life since his most recent suspension.

Blackmon’s mother was courteous, but politely declined to answer questions about how her son was doing, where he was living, whether or not he was in some type of rehab/counseling, or staying in football shape.

Two sources told the Times-Union he’s living in the Oklahoma City area. Messages from the Times-Union to Justin Blackmon, either by direct contact or having messages relayed to him, were not returned.

Since entering the NFL, Blackmon has often put himself under the microscope for good and bad reasons. Two months after the Jaguars made him the No. 5 pick in the 2012 draft, he pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI charges in Oklahoma, stemming from a police stop in which he had triple the legal limit of alcohol in his system. His blood-alcohol level was tested twice and he registered a .26 and .24.

That put Blackmon in the NFL’s testing program. He was given a four-game suspension to start the 2013 season for his first violation of the league’s substance abuse policy, though the substance was never identified.

Blackmon, who insisted he didn’t have a drinking problem at the time, returned to the Jaguars and had four productive games (29 catches, 415 yards, one TD) before the second suspension banned him indefinitely.

TRYING TO FIND HIS WAY

With Blackmon’s career in limbo, interviews with friends and ex-coaches revealed that obtaining information on his progress is difficult.

Gunter Brewer, now the receivers coach at North Carolina, recruited Blackmon to Oklahoma State and was his position coach there for four years, including two Biletnikoff Award-winning seasons as the nation’s top receiver. Brewer is one of the few people outside of immediate family who maintains occasional communication with Blackmon.

Most of their exchanges are via text messages, but the two had a long conversation about a month ago. Brewer indicated that Blackmon is seeking professional help for unspecified issues.

“[Blackmon] just said, ‘I’m getting help,’ and he left it at that,” Brewer said. “Most folks [with addiction problems] don’t go the first stage of admitting they need help. People want to reach out and help Justin, but I think he feels like he’s let them down. He’s trying to find his way.

“I know he’s getting professional help, but I didn’t get into it with him. I’m not sure if it’s for alcohol or something else. The first step is admitting you need it, then going to get it.”

Since his last suspension on Nov. 1, 2013, which remains in effect, the NFL has provided no details on when Blackmon can apply for reinstatement.

“Someone’s status in the program is confidential,” said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. “Until further notice, we have no information to provide or nothing to say.”

The Jaguars have repeatedly stated they have little or no communication with Blackmon. While they haven’t released him and don’t have to pay any of his salary while he’s suspended, the Jaguars selected receivers Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson in the second round of the 2014 draft, sending a message that they’re prepared to move on without him.

But because the door isn’t officially closed, many people wondering about how Blackmon is doing and wanting to talk with him have run into roadblocks.

“I tried reaching out a few times,” said Jaguars receiver Cecil Shorts. “If he responds, he responds. That doesn’t matter, as long as he knows that I care. From what I’ve heard within the last week, he’s checked into a rehab and is doing all right. That’s the extent of what I know.”

THE KID THEY DON’T KNOW

When you talk to the people who knew Blackmon before and during his rise to stardom at Oklahoma State, a picture is painted of a talented athlete with the right mindset.

He came from a strong, two-parent family — his father, Warren, is a retired U.S. Marine and Donna is a kindergarten teacher — that emphasized discipline. Blackmon, a former class president who regularly attended Corinth Baptist Church in Ardmore, Okla., treasured friendships with teammates and had a history of helping people in need.

Nobody saw this humble, small-town kid having multiple off-the-field incidents or struggling to regain his NFL career because of substance-abuse issues.

“Seeing him in junior high and high school, you would have never thought this with Justin,” said Mark Yates, who served as an assistant coach on Blackmon’s football and basketball teams at Plainview High. “It’s baffling; it really is. It has to be an addiction taking him over. That’s not him. I hope he gets help and gets his head on straight.”

Nobody is more mystified over Blackmon’s NFL career slipping away than Jeremy Dombek, the former Plainview head football coach now at Mustang High near Oklahoma City. He lived four houses away from the Blackmon family in Ardmore. When Dombek’s daughter, Abbey, was barely walking, Blackmon was her first baby-sitter.

“That’s how much we trusted Justin,” Dombek said.

After Dombek left Plainview for a job at another school, one of his players sustained an injury to his pancreas in practice and had to be hospitalized. When he learned the player was an Oklahoma State fan, he asked Blackmon if he could send a signed football.

“The next day, Justin drove an hour after practice to my house to go see this kid at the hospital,” Dombek said. “He signed all kinds of stuff, took pictures with his family, really gave everybody a lift.”

That story is similar to one that made national headlines in 2011, when Blackmon struck up a friendship with 10-year-old Olivia Hamilton, who went through 108 treatments for leukemia over a two-year period. They bonded enough that Olivia went to New York with her father, David, to watch Blackmon get selected in the NFL draft.

Dombek refuses to give up on the player that he coached from eighth grade through his junior year at Plainview High, believing his support system and Blackmon’s competitive spirit will pull him through.

“Whatever issues he has, I know he’s going to come out of it. At least I hope he does,” Dombek said. “I’m not a psychiatrist, and I don’t want to make excuses for him. I know he needs help, and he’s got to use the resources to get that help. There’s no doubt in my mind he will play again. I don’t know if it’ll be with Jacksonville.”

Rick Harris, Plainview’s head basketball coach for three years before moving to a similar position at Putnam City North school in Oklahoma City, has repeatedly tried to reach out to Blackmon without success. Blackmon came to a couple of his Putnam games a few years ago, but he hasn’t seen Blackmon since he turned pro.

“I don’t know this guy he’s become,” Harris said. “I’ve tried to find out what’s really going on, and haven’t heard anything from him. It’s sad. I really love the kid. He had the world in the palm of his hand.

“Justin was the best player I’ve ever seen or coached. All the sacrifices he made for me on the basketball court, I’d love to be able to help him now. I just don’t have contact with him.”

Brewer also coached Dez Bryant and Randy Moss when they were in college, so he knows something about NFL receivers with off-the-field issues. He didn’t see Blackmon in that category.

“Justin was the one that I thought was a can’t-miss,” Brewer said. “How his life spiraled out is a mystery to me.”

JAGUARS KEEP THEIR DISTANCE

Few people in the Jaguars’ organization felt more devastation over Blackmon’s downward spiral than receivers coach Jerry Sullivan. He believed his prized student had turned the corner after the first suspension.

Following a 14-catch game against the Denver Broncos, Sullivan lauded Blackmon for his work ethic during a month-long absence and said he finally seemed “at peace with himself.” A little more than two weeks later, after the Jaguars came home from the game in London against the San Francisco 49ers, the NFL announced it was suspending Blackmon again.

“I went through my emotional shock on the last suspension,” Sullivan said. “From that point on, I’ve put my emotions in a dormant place, so they don’t hurt any more than they need to hurt. I’m not judgmental, just kind of wait and see. That’s how I’m handling it.

“Our organization has been very supportive. It’s just one of those things where [Blackmon] has to find his way. I hope he understands where he’s at in his life and the opportunity that’s still available, but don’t let it slip away. As we know in this business, you get forgotten fast.”

When the second suspension came, general manager Dave Caldwell emphasized the Jaguars had no intention of releasing Blackmon, saying: “It’s not in our nature to just turn our back on one of our own members that needs help.”

But in recent months, with the drafting of Lee and Robinson, plus Blackmon being initially reluctant to take advantage of the NFL’s resources to get help, the Jaguars front office has distanced itself from talking about Blackmon. Caldwell declined to be interviewed for this story.

Moments after Lee and Robinson were taken in the second round, coach Gus Bradley admitted that things were not going in a positive direction with Blackmon.

“I feel at times there’s probably a little emptiness,” Bradley said. “There are some unknowns there and you don’t know how it’s working. You don’t want to shut it off. We haven’t heard much and it doesn’t sound like it’s going in the right direction. ... We can’t count on him.”

The Jaguars have intimated they don’t expect Blackmon to be reinstated in 2014, so nobody knows yet whether he can have a Cris Carter-type career revival or will become another R. Jay Soward, the Jaguars’ first-round pick in 2000 whose brief NFL career was wrecked by substance abuse.

UNFINISHED STORY

At the Jaguars’ request, Marcedes Lewis intended to take Blackmon under his wing this offseason, but the veteran tight end was unable to make contact after Blackmon changed his cell phone number.

What concerns Lewis most is that Blackmon will take on the challenge of conquering his issues with minimal help, thinking he can do it alone.

“Me, I know how it is when you have outside issues,” said Lewis, a reference to his previous legal battles for custody and visitation time with his daughter. “I can be the first one to tell you it’s not good handling it by yourself. Sometimes, you need your teammates to lean on, your coaches and friends. I hope Justin is doing OK and trying to get some guidance.

“You never know what’s going on unless you’re that person. We can sit here and make as many predictions as we want. We’ll never know until, hopefully, he gets back, whenever that may be.”

Sullivan likens Blackmon’s skills to that of Basketball Hall of Fame player Dennis Rodman, saying: “Rodman was one of the great rebounders of all time because he knew how to put his body in good position and use his hands. Justin knows how to do that in football.”

However, those skills don’t mean a whole lot as Blackmon tries to win a personal battle with the demons that are keeping him off the field.

It’s not like Blackmon is lacking for a support system. Between family and friends back home in Oklahoma, along with many in the Jaguars’ organization, people are hoping the unfinished story of the 24-year-old receiver can be one of redemption.

“I wouldn’t count him out because he’s so young and he’s so gifted,” said one person intimately connected to Blackmon, who requested anonymity because the sensitive circumstances. “Yes, it’ll be an uphill battle when you put yourself in such a deep hole. You have to chalk up a lot of this to immaturity.

“Justin is a ferocious competitor on the field, but he almost has too much of a laid-back attitude when he’s away from football. He’s got a lot of people around him that do care. It’s easy to write him off because he’s had multiple slip-ups, but I don’t think you should.”

@JimmyPX-----I do read between the lines, but the article said that Blackmon said "I'm getting help" and no one else mentions it? all of us are concerned of the young man's health first and then him still being a Jaguar second , no matter what that tool said at the top of this thread.

I think John Harbaugh said it best this year and itt should ring true for this article.

"..You've got to understand that while you may be 22, 23, 25, 26, it's not your 22- and 23-year-old buddies. You're not in the same position they are in. You have to grow up faster than your pals, so you can't go home and run with your pals and think you're in the same place that they're in. It's a privilege to have a job like this."

It is a privilege and it was wasted. You can't be mad at people for wanting to know why someone wasted such a great opportunity, and after second chances, what he is doing to show that it wasn't just a waste. As far as an addiction, sure he can be addicted now but you can't tell me that it wasn't a personal choice. As he play high school and college football, with his talent and size, he knew he had a shot at the NFL. What did he expect? Party now and quit cold when being employed by the NFL.

I hate to say it, but to many people blur the lines between privilege, gift, and right. I hope the best for Justin, but I hope the best for a lot of people. No communication is not him taken accountablity for the situation he finds himself in now. Maybe one day he will hit step five and let us know hes doing better.

Davethecaveman, I know what you mean but if you "read between the lines" you have your answer. If he was in a program and doing well, his agent and family would be saying "He's doing great, he's in rehab and we're working with the NFL's substance abuse program to get him back on the field as soon as possible". Justin would text his teammates and say "I'm going to rehab guys so won't be able to talk but I'm in a program and I'll hopefully see you all soon".
Instead---crickets which means he's not in a program and his mother and Agent don't want to say anything. If he was doing well don't you think they would have said so ??? Even Gus Bradley who is "Mr Optimism" wasn't when it came to Blackmon which speaks volumes. That's why everyone is so concerned about him, not as a football player but as a fellow human being who it sounds like is in a very dark place indeed right now.

In no way does anybody have the right to know about Blackmon's personal medical information.
I just feel ,as a Jaguar fan, we all got ripped off, by someone that didn't follow the rules.
Sick or not, we have a right, as long as he is still a Jaguar, to know whether or not he is actually getting help or not.
That is exactly the reason for this article.